Age of Worms: The Return

Wherein Lord Commander Bors Splintershield defeats a rival for power.

The Diamond Band, or at least those still alive, are truly reunited for the first time in four years at the Champion’s Games in Liberty. Lord Commander Bors Splintershield, the ruler of Redhand, has agreed to turn over the original Champion’s Belt this year to the victor. The Belt, a Splintershield family heirloom, is to be handed over at the conclusion of the Games to the show solidarity between Alhaster and Liberty. At the moment that Bors is about to hand over the Champion’s Belt to the last gladiator standing in the arena (a chronomancer called Valgan deRukoth), thunder rings across the arena and stepping forward, seemingly out nowhere, is the reincarnated Zerric Splintershield.

Zerric warns the Diamond Band that he has spent the last four years as one of the exalted in the Halls of Terak, and that Terak has sent Zerric back to the world to protect Bors from danger. According to Zerric, a dangerous frost titan called Thazalgor Ramcrown is a great threat to Redhand and to Bors, and Zerric has been sent to ensure that Ramcrown doesn’t harm his cousin. During this reunion, another disturbing event occurs. A spectral apparition of Celeste appears before the party, beseeching them to save her. Combining their knowledge and their recollections of the apparition, the heroes realize that Celeste is being held in a place known as the Haunted Canyon, located on the far side of the Fields of Pesh near Diamond Lake. Artus Shemwick, the proprietor of the Games, sends his bodyguard, Qualt, and Valgan deRukoth with the Diamond Band.

Doran opens a portal to the teleportation circle in Allustan’s home in Diamond Lake, catching the wizard offguard. Realizing who has stepped through the portal, Allustan welcomes the heroes and offers his assistance. More than that, he tells the heroes that a short time ago a group of five Striders of Darmon arrived in Diamond Lake, explaining that they were waiting on someone who would need a guide across the Fields of Pesh. Among the Striders is a young man called Paedrig Theldrickson, who, in addition to being the son of the Diamond Band’s former nemesis Theldrick but also the half-brother of Ivagmar. Paedrig explains that he was sent a vision by Darmon that he and his fellow Striders would be needed to see the Diamond Band to their destination.

Setting off with the assistance of the Striders of Darmon, the Diamond Band crosses the Fields of Pesh and reaches the Haunted Canyon. Inside, they find Celeste imprisoned within a magic circle, and in the process of freeing her are beset by elemental creatures. After defeating them and defusing the magic circle, Celeste is freed and reunited with Vadir. Celeste tells the Diamond Band that, for the last four years, she has been serving Darmon by spying on Thazalgor Ramcrown and posing as a succubus. Ramcrown discovered her deception and imprisoned her on the Material plane to keep her divine masters from finding her. She provides the heroes with valuable information on Thazalgor Ramcrown, but they have little time to wait before Doran receives a sending from Manzorian: Alhaster is burning, and elementals are attacking.

Once again, Doran opens a portal to Alhaster, and the heroes press through. On the other side, the Blessed Angels brief Lord Commander Bors on what has happened. Massive, 100-foot-tall elementals are rampaging throughout the city, and the Blessed Angels are doing all they can to combat the monstrosities. When the Diamond Band intervenes, the elemental monstrosities are defeated, but Thazalgor has a surprise in store for them. As each elemental is defeated, it becomes an expanding sphere of flame, and though the heroes are able to quench one before it explodes, they fail to stop the second one from detonating, creating a crater where much of the southwest corner of the city once stood.

In the wake of the devastation, Valgan deRukoth pulls Lord Commander Bors aside and confides that he once tried to use his chronomancy to peer back through time to the days of the Dawn War. When he did so, the power unleashed during that time caused him to become somewhat disjointed in time. However, in the ancient past he saw something that he believes can help Bors: an ancient site known as the Temple of Ascension. During the Dawn War, the Temple of Ascension was used by the Primordials to raise up their best servants and transform them into Archons. Valgan speculates that Thazalgor may be trying to distract Bors long enough to find the Temple and either destroy it or use it for his own means. However, there is a problem: at the end of the Dawn War, the gods his the knowledge of the Temple’s Location from all of mankind, locking the knowledge away from mortals. The Striders of Darmon once again step in to aid; the Striders believe that the best way to get somewhere you need to go is to beseech the Lord of Ways, Darmon. They sequester themselves for a time, and then emerge with both good and ill omens. The Master of the Road saw fit to provide the Striders with the location of the Temple, but after their meditation was complete Paedrig Theldrickson turned on the Striders and fled with the knowledge of the Temple’s location.

The Striders perform a ritual that transforms one of Alhaster’s bridges into a portal to the Barrier Peaks, where the Temple of Ascension is hidden. Entering a cave system in the mountains, the heroes stumble across some of Thazalgor’s allies, a volcanic dragon and some fire archons. Fighting their way past the guardians, the Diamond Band arrives at the Temple of Ascension and face down Thazalgor. During the fight, Ivagmar devastates Thazalgor using magic arrows, and then the frost titan is imprisoned in a hovering crystal in the temple’s center courtyard. Before Thazalgor’s allies can free him, the Diamond Band dispatches the frost titan’s allies, and keeps Thazalgor trapped in the crystal. With the threat of Thazalgor out of the way, the Diamond Band’s ritual casters are able to perform the ritual to utilize the Temple’s power, and Bors takes another step toward his transformation into a true Wind Duke.

The Diamond Band becomes the newest gladiatorial champions

The heroes accept Eligos’ invitation to join him for dinner, hoping to learn more about some of the mysteries they have uncovered in their recent adventures. Eligos examines some of the items they have accumulated during their adventures, and provides them with some interesting information about what they have gathered.

All of the clues they have gathered up to now point to the involvement of a minor deity of the creation and mastery of undead called Kyuss. The worm-infested undead are the most notorious (and the least dangerous) of Kyuss’ spawn. Their presence in the region, combined with the discovery of the various worms, indicates that the cult of Kyuss is certainly becoming more active in the area. Spawn of Kyuss are especially dangerous in that they are horrifically fecund. The cult of Kyuss has traditionally been small, often consisting of single priests who live double lives as upstanding citizens. Recent evidence suggests that the Ebon Triad may have involved the smaller (but older) cult of Kyuss in its schemes.

Eligos suspects some dark purpose behind this sinister alliance, possibly related to the coming Age of Worms. Many cults and soothsayers have developed their own theories about the Age of Worms, but Eligos has never seen so many references to it from so many different sources as the information the Diamond Band provides him. Something is certainly building. Upon finding out that these fabulously rare Apostolic Scrolls are in town, and worse, that someone as important as Loris Raknian has purchased them, Eligos’s countenance turns dark. He tells the heroes little about the Apostolic Scrolls save that they are reputed to have been penned by Kyuss himself and detail the creation of the ulgurstasta. These massive undead creatures are capable of consuming the living and regurgitating them as undead. The Apostolic Scrolls are said to contain rituals that allow an ulgurstasta to create even more powerful undead, spewing them out at a tremendous rate.

As their meeting draws to a close, Eligos recommends that the heroes investigate Loris Raknian and his unsettling interest in the Apostolic Scrolls. When the heroes tell him that Raknian’s already tried to have them killed, Eligos nods and observes that this just further damns the director of the Free City Arena. Obviously, he learned of the heroes’ actions in Diamond Lake and took matters into his own hands. Eligos recommends caution; Raknian is a powerful man and remains quite popular with the city government. Their best chance, according to Eligos, is to infiltrate the Champion’s Games and try and bring Raknian down from the inside.

Eligos puts the heroes in touch with a woman named Celeste. After introductions, Celeste informs the heroes that all participants in the Champion’s Games must fight for a licensed manager. These licenses are difficult to come by, but fortunately for the heroes Celeste’s friend, Ekaym Smallcask, happens to posses just such a license but has no gladiators to fight for him. Ekaym does have one gladiator that he has already recruited, a human bard by the name of Byron Castle, and can use the rest of the heroes to fill out the team roster. The Diamond Band is officially formed and named.

The heroes participate in the games, and are victorious in the first two rounds, despite some serious setbacks. Between rounds, they explore the chambers beneath the arena, uncovering a tiefling named Bozal Zahol who has been holding the animated corpse of Ekaym’s sister as insurance against Loris Raknian. After defeating Zahol, the heroes discover that Raknian and the tiefling have already used the scrolls to summon a foul creature, which now rests beneath the arena floor.

During the final bout of the tournament, Raknian calls forth the ulgurstasta, commanding it to consume the champions. The Diamond Band slays the ulgurstasta, then defeats Loris Raknian, ending his plans to bring about the Age of Worms. The heroes are crowned the Champions of the Games and awarded the Champion’s Belt, which is actually another piece of Zerric Splintershield’s ancestral armor. The Diamond Band has triumphed, but not all is well in the city.

At some point during the Champion’s Games, Raknian learned some troubling news. It seems that a notable sage named Eligos has been asking around about Kyuss, the Apostolic Scrolls, and the Age of Woms. At Bozal’s urging, Raknian sent his cohort Okoral on an assassination mission against the sage. Okoral had little trouble invading the sage’s home the night before the Final Battle and murdered him in his sleep.

When the Diamond Band returns to Eligos’s house, they find both Eligos and Pollard are quite dead—their killers are nowhere to be found. A search of the estate turns up one item of interest. The party discovers a bundle of notes and observations that catalog what Eligos has learned of the Age of Worms. This bundle is kept in a small coffer on the shelf of Eligos’s study and was simply overlooked by Okoral in his rush to do the job and get out. A note on the top of this bundle is addressed to Allustan, and reads, “My dear friend Allustan—What your adventurers have stumbled into sickens me to my soul. Every new leaf I turn reveals an even darker secret. Here are my notes. You must take them to our one-time master—although I fear
that even he may be ill-equipped for what writhes in all of our futures. Until then…” The note is not finished.

The heroes, recovering from their recent encounters with the Thieves’ Guild, take some time to rest and recuperate while enjoying a few days in the city of Liberty. During one of these forays, Ivagmar’s phynxkin companion runs off, and Ivagmar begins acting strangely. Soon thereafter, the Diamond Band hears reports of crimes being committed where they are the prime suspects, an impossibility given that they have spent most of their time in the Crooked House or at the Temple of Terak in the Temple Quarter. While Bors performs rites and rituals to advance to the rank of Banner in his holy order, the others do some digging and discover that the beings perpetrating crimes in their name are holed up in a place called the Sodden Hold, a warehouse down by the docks in the Old Quarter.

This leads the Diamond Band to a confrontation with the dangerous charlatans in their demented house of mirrors. During their exploration of the Sodden Hold, the heroes discover that their enemies are actually a group of doppelgangers, one of whom has infiltrated the party and replaced Ivagmar. After uncovering the deception and freeing Ivagmar, the heroes proceed deeper into the Sodden Hold and meet the master of the doppelgangers, a greater doppelganger called Telakin, whom the heroes had met once before in the disguise of Cyril. Defeating Telakin, the lord of the doppelgangers, reveals a deeper threat, a hidden master directing their actions.

Before the heroes can escape the doppelgangers’ hideout, a mind flayer called Zyrxog attempts to destroy them, with the aid of his drow minions. Tracking down the mind flayer, the heroes invade his alien lair deep beneath the city streets. Here they defeat Zyrxog, and learn about the aberration’s recent dealings, including numerous transactions with Loris Raknian, master of the Free City Arena and host of the forthcoming Champion’s Games. Vadir discovers a ledger logging sales of disturbing artifacts to collectors around the city. Two entries seem of particular note—a recent entry logging the payment for the Diamond Band’s assassination by the doppelgangers and an earlier transaction with the same customer concerning something called the Apostolic Scrolls. The name of that customer is Loris Raknian, director of the Free City Arena.

A few days after the Diamond Band defeats Zyrxog and have had a chance to rest and recuperate,
but before they have a proper chance to act on the information they’ve learned about Raknian and his mysterious interest in their livelihood, Eligos sends them a note inviting them to his estate for dinner.

The Diamond Band is quickly drawn into the politics of the Thieves' Guild of Liberty

The Diamond Band, at the urgings of Allustan, sets out from Diamond Lake and makes the two-week journey overland to the Free City of Liberty. After encounters with a corrupt gate guard, an apocalyptic street preacher, and a perilous parade, the party finally reaches the estate of Eligos the sage. The sage informs the heroes that although he can find the answers they seek, it will take time, giving the party a chance to idle away the days at a local inn, the Crooked House.

The arrival of heroes of any stripe attracts attention in Liberty, and it is not long before Cyril, a liaison for the Thieves’ Guild, approaches the party with an offer of work. Leading them to a tavern called the Blockhouse, Cyril introduces the Diamond Band to a man named Parkol, who explains that he needs them to find a valuable magic ring that was stolen from a member of the guild last night.

The investigation starts in a brothel known as the House of Orchids, then leads to the docks, and then to the border of the Mercenary Quarter. Eventually, all signs point to a young thief named Adoch, who is currently hiding out at in a room at the Red Goose Inn, better known to locals as the Bloody Goose for the number of fights and murders that are common there.

At the inn, Cyril springs a trap on the party, framing them for the murder of Adoch in an attempt to both slow the heroes’ progress and to prevent them from learning of his own involvement. Worse, the heroes stumble across the half-orc assassin Qualt, and Vadir is nearly killed by a single crossbow bolt fired by the assassin when the heroes break down the door to his room by mistake. Narrowly escaping the city watch, the party encounters a young streetwalker named Jienna, who offers to help them get away—for a price. Following a high-speed chase through the Old Quarter, the party recuperates at Jienna’s apartment before pursuing a lead at an inn called the Dewberry House.

At the Dewberry House, the party confronts the innkeeper, a widow named Mihina who has been secretly aiding Cyril in his plot against Sepris. When she concludes that the heroes might implicate her in the plot, she places all the blame on Cyril, and allows them to search his room, where they find Sepris’s ring.

Returning to the Blockhouse, the heroes learn that Sepris has already left—escorted by Cyril and his cronies. Realizing that Sepris is likely in danger of assassination, the party catches up to him in the tunnels beneath the Old Quarter, making their way through Soot Street to rescue Sepris from an assassination attempt. Having foiled a plot to overthrow the leader of the Thieves’ Guild, the heroes find themselves with the gratitude of Sepris. As thanks, he rewards the Diamond Band and offers to smooth things over with Qualt, ensuring that the dangerous assassin does nothing more to harm them.

The heroes arrive at Blackwall Keep to find over two dozen lizardfolk assaulting it. The Diamond Band comes to rescue the survivors in the keep and repels the lizardfolk in successive attacks. Once the keep is secure, the surviving guards tell them several soldiers (including Allustan’s friend) were carried off and need to be rescued. While the heroes rest up following their battles the previous day, an assassin slips into Zerric Splintershield’s room in the night and slits the dwarf’s throat. Luckily, his cousin Bors hears the commotion, and is able to respond in time to leave Zerric alive, if now in possession of a nasty scar. The following morning, the Commander of the keep urges them to free the captives, while he uses an emergency scroll of teleport to report the news to the commander of the Diamond Lake garrison and ask for reinforcements to be sent south.

The heroes also discover that the last Commander of the Keep was a former cleric of Terak named Theldrick, the very same cleric who now serves Naran, and who operated out of the dungeon in the Dourstone Mine beneath Diamond Lake. The heroes also learn that Theldrick turned away from Terak after his wife was kidnapped from outside of Blackwall Keep by orcs some 20 years ago—around the same time that Ivagmar was born.

The trek to the lizardfolk lair takes more than a day, but the numerous lizardfolk leave a relatively easy trail even through the swamp. The lair is large and partly submerged, and the lizardfolk defend it vigorously. The Diamond Band learns of a schism within the lizardfolk
tribe, and of the alliance between the lizard king and the black dragon Ilthane. The Diamond Band defeats the corrupt king and rescues the tribe’s eggs from a terrible fate, securing the cooperation of the Mistmarsh tribes and rescue the prisoners.

Returning to the keep with the freed soldiers, the heroes find the survivors at the keep are terrified of a creature in the basement that has been snatching them one by one. The heroes descend into the basement to discover a vile undead creature known as the spawn of Kyuss and slay it, but not before learning first-hand how dangerous they can be.

When the Diamond Band brings Marzena to Allustan, he is grateful for their help and eager to
hear the news of their most recent adventures. Marzena tells Allustan what’s she’s heard about green worms in the Cairn Hills, but unfortunately her news offers little new information apart from confirmation that spawn of Kyuss are increasing in number throughout the Cairn Hills. This information and the heroes’ report convinces Allustan that there is something larger going on, and he tells the heroes about an “old friend” in the Free City, a sage named Eligos who knows a great deal about strange monsters. Their next step is to visit Eligos in the Free City and share Allustan’s compiled notes and their own experiences. Armed with this information, the sage ought to be able to determine what sort of threat the green worms represent to the region and how it can be countered.

A delve into an abandoned mine reveals a lifelong enemy

The heroes return to Diamond Lake laden with treasure and questions from the Whispering Cairn. Inquiries about the glyphs and sigils upon the diadem invariably lead to the single authority on matters arcane in the village, a wizard named Allustan (Doran Stout’s mentor). Allustan must consult his library to decipher the coded runes, a process that will take several days.

Following-up on the story of the vile necromancer Filge leads to the Dourstone Mine, where a secret underground chamber now hosts a covert cell of the Ebon Triad, a wicked cult dedicated to merging Asmodeus, Canarak and Naran into a supremely powerful overgod who will rule over an era of great strife—the so-called Age of Worms.

The arcane lore of the Ebon Triad speaks of a malign entity named Kyuss who emerged in the desolate Rift Canyon centuries ago. An undead colossus, Kyuss towered over the armies of local warlords, his rotting body festering with undulating green worms. The monstrosity created a horde of undead in his own image—the spawn of Kyuss—and set them upon the populace. Sages and holy men for thousands of miles spoke in hushed tones of prophecies fulfilled and the imminent dawn of the Age of Worms. Many began to lose hope. Alas, ancient heroes eventually brought Kyuss low within his cliffside lair in the Wormcrawl Fissure, and the myth of Kyuss faded from all but the most esoteric histories. But the tale forms a major part of the dogma of the Ebon Triad, who seek the advent of the Age of Worms as a precursor to the blasphemous birth of their debased overgod.

Recently, agents of the Ebon Triad discovered signs of unusual undead lurking in the Diamond Lake region, perhaps associated with the local burial cairns in the nearby hills. Rumors spoke of humanoid creatures infested with wriggling green worms—a description that perfectly matches that of the spawn of Kyuss. To investigate these rumors, the Ebon Triad established a cell in an abandoned upper level of a still-active mine near the village of Diamond Lake.

Descending into the Dourstone Mine, the heroes discover that the mine has been split into three distinct sections, one each for the worshipers of Asmodeus, Canarak, and Naran. In the chambers of the leader of the cult of Asmodeus, the heroes discover a series of messages, the most important of which is as follows:

“The secrets of this page are most holy. Know ye heretics who invade them that the eye of Asmodeus is upon you. If you read this, Theldrick, you have either slain me and doomed our cause, or the time is nigh for our final victory. At last the riddle of this place is solved. In ages past, a great being known as Kyuss rose above the petty warlords who fought and struggled for material gain. Mighty Kyuss is the herald of the Overgod. Soon, he will sound the clarion call to the faithful. The three sundered faiths shall be made whole. The undead our agents spotted must be located and captured. If they bear the worms of Kyuss then they perhaps hold the final answer to our research. The Ebon Aspect stirs within the pool, but it is still not ready to emerge. Perhaps a traumatic event – an invasion by heretics, a great battle fought within these halls – could awaken it. But even then it will attain only a minor form. The Way of the Ebon Triad speaks of the danger of awakening the aspect too soon. Our work will be for naught. We must find the worms and the undead hosts that carry them. If they are not here, then we must send agents to the Rift. If Kyuss himself, or his agents, cannot shepherd in the Age of Worms, then we shall do it ourselves so that the Overgod may live. Our course is clear, my dear Theldrick. Smenk is longer useful to us and must die. Kill him, then send agents to the Mistmarsh, across the southern hills. I believe that we will find what we are looking for there, among the lizardfolk. Summon more of your warriors. If the calculations and portents are correct, the time for covert action is at an end. As the Age of Worms begins, we must strike hard and fast to prepare the coming of the Overgod. Of course, dear Theldrick, if you were so rash as to slay my followers and I, then you, soon, shall join me in the afterlife. Doubtless your treachery has already stirred the Overgod. Our mission has failed, and you will die at his hands.”

After defeating the Faceless One and battling the Canarak-worshiping Grallak Kur, the heroes discover that the leader of the Naranite cultists is a cultured man named Theldrick. The heroes strip Theldrick of his weapons (but not his ceremonial armor) and send the cleric back out of the mine, warning him never to return to Diamond Lake. Among Theldrick’s possession are two journal entries of great interest.

However, sending Theldrick away was not the last of the troubles in the Dourstone Mine. A massive creature, alluded to in the Faceless One’s message as the Ebon Aspect, awakens from its slumber and attacks the heroes. Once they defeat the profane creature, the heroes emerge from the mines to discover that Theldrick paid Diamond Lake a visit while they were battling the Ebon Aspect. Balabar Smenk has been murdered messily, leaving his operation leaderless and freeing Zerric Splintershield from his indentured servitude. Additionally, among the items in Smenk’s possession was a piece of the Sentinel’s Raiment, the ancestral armor and weapons of the Splintershield Clan. Zerric reclaims another piece of his heritage, and the heroes have a few clues as to how to proceed—including to an allusion to the lizardfolk of the Mistmarsh.

The first adventure of the heroes from Diamond Lake

Idle chatter around the village of Diamond Lake says that a band of richly dressed adventurers now frequents the taproom of the Feral Dog, Diamond Lake’s most notorious tavern. The confident heroes from Liberty spoke of hard-won battles on their journey to Diamond Lake, and of their intention to explore the long-abandoned Stirgenest Cairn on the lake’s distant southeastern shore. The natives of Diamond Lake know that cairn is oft explored by the community’s youth, who always find it completely empty of marvels and perfectly harmless.

Not so another cairn within a day’s ride of the village, however. This cairn lies near an iron mine that went dry about 50 years ago, and its owner’s charter apparently elapsed when he died a few years later. Situated thusly in a sort of no-man’s land, the cairn was all but forgotten, its yawning entrance overgrown with weeds and choked with collapsed debris. Rediscovered by a curious teenager three years ago, the cairn has since been a sort of community secret held by Diamond Lake’s youth, who dare each other to disappear into its cyclopean entrance as a test of mettle. Occasionally, when the wind is just right, haunting, almost magical tones emerge from the depths of the forlorn tomb. Those who know of its location call the place the Whispering Cairn.

If adventurers from the Free City expect to discover hidden passages and riches within the Stirgenest Cairn, it stands to reason that the Whispering Cairn might also hold a genuine opportunity for profit. And in the rough-and-tumble mining village of Diamond Lake, where desperate folk slave in dank tunnels to profit wealthy lords, an opportunity for profit is an opportunity to escape. Corrupt mine manage Balabar Smenk has been thinking along these lines, and he orders his indentured servant, Zerric Splintershield, to explore the cairn and bring him any treasures he finds. Zerric rounds up his comrades and sets off to explore the cairn.

Deep within the complex, the heroes come across the ghost of a runaway teen, who fell victim to one of the cairn’s traps a decade ago. The undead horror blocks the heroes’ progress, promising to abandon the cairn if the characters return his bones to the small family cemetery on a farmstead just outside town.

The heroes’ plans to return the ghost’s bones to their proper resting place are upset when they discover that the other graves in the family plot have been emptied. To appease the ghost, the heroes track down the ghost’s relatives, who are being used as guardian skeletons by Filge, an unusual necromancer who has just set up shop in town at the behest of the mine manager Balabar Smenk. Correspondence discovered at the necromancer’s home, and a rough interrogation, reveals that a group of cultists in the area are preparing for a coming event known as the “Age of Worms.”

The necromancer also refers to a secret cult hidden in a nearby mine, and implicates one of Diamond Lake’s mine managers in cult-related activity. The heroes return to the Whispering Cairn, where they explore the ruins beyond the blocked door to discover an unplundered tomb protected by hostile creatures of elemental air. At last, the heroes reach the tomb of the Wind Duke Zosiel and discover a treasure that may prove decisive in thwarting the advent of the Age of Worms: the Crown of the Wind Dukes, in a dormant form, and the talisman of the sphere.